Press Release: Out of the Box Doll Project (July 27th, before the SOS March and Rally in Washington, DC)

WHERE: THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION. IN THE PLAZA ALONG MARYLAND AVENUE BY THE BOG SCHOOL BELL

DATE: WEDNESDAY July 27th

TIME: 12:00-2:00

The purpose of this event is to call attention to educators, students, parents and community members who have been facing increasing restrictions on their rights to a meaningful and democratic education due to policies over the last ten years going back to No Child Left Behind.

While it is students, teachers, and parents who have the greatest stake in the decisions being made in educational policy, they have the least voice and visibility. The purpose of the Out of the Box Doll project is to create a visible public space for these grass roots stake holders, usually marginalized from the decision making, to be seen and heard. The dolls in boxes are a visual representation of a collective stand in opposition to the practices of “boxing in” students and teachers in the name of accountability and at the expense of creative, meaningful and sustainable educational practices.

Teachers and students from all over the country have made these dolls, in an effort to speak symbolically to the administration; to represent themselves and to make the statement that they are refusing to be “boxed in” any longer. The dolls in boxes represent a commitment to free, creative, and empowered schools and classrooms everywhere.

This event is occurring in conjunction with the Save Our Schools (SOS) March and National Call to Action. The SOS conference will be held at American University July 28th and 29th. The march will be held July 30th beginning at Ellipse Park with a rally at 10:30 am.

Follow the Out of the Box Doll project on Facebook. The Doll Project event coordinator Morna McDermott invites interested individuals and groups from all over the country to begin their own Out of the Box groups, where anyone can join together and make dolls, put them in boxes, and place them collectively in public places such as government buildings and schools, letting their own communities that they are opposed to oppressive educational policies and will resist being boxed in by fear and intimidation. Such events can be documented and posted on the Out of the Box Facebook site, so that communities everywhere can share in their struggle with one another and to know that we are many in numbers.

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About Elisa Waingort

I am currently teaching ELA/SS to 6th and 7th grade students at an International School in Quito, Ecuador. I have been teaching for more than 25 years in South and North America. I love working with kids and every day I look forward to the challenge of learning to be a teacher.